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These mental gymnastics are held in high esteem in academic circles and the World University Chess Championships are always a great success. The first edition was held in Odessa in 1990. From 2020 onwards, Chess will be organised in a cluster event as part of the WUC Mind Sports.

EVENTS World University Championship

All Events Chess

2020
Bydgoszcz (POL)
11-16 Sep 2020
2018
Aracaju (BRA)
12-18 Sep 2018
2016
 Abu Dhabi (UAE)
9-15 Apr 2016
2014
Katowice (POL)
19-24 Aug 2014
2013
Kazan (RUS)
6-17 Jul 2013
2011
Shenzhen (CHN)
12-23 Aug 2011

Chess

FISU Technical Committee Chairs

Lukasz TURLEJ (POL)

Susan NAMANGALE (MWI)

 

International Federation

World Chess Federation

The History of Chess in FISU

There will always be people who say chess is not a sport. Here at FISU, we never took this assertion seriously and we integrated the discipline into our programme. This mental gymnastics is held in high esteem in academic circles and the World University Chess Championships are always of a great success. This was the case during the first two editions staged in Odessa, Ukraine, in 1990 and in Antwerp, Belgium, in 1992. Nevertheless, these two contests suffered from the fact that they were not included in the calendar of the Federation Internationale des Echecs (FIDE), meaning that the performance in World University Chess Championships were not linked to the titles of International Master or Grand Master. During the 1994 edition in Sofia, Bulgaria, the FISU Chess World University Championship was recognised at its full value. This time, the results were recorded by the FIDE, meaning that the contest was officially recognised and became part of the events awarded by FIDE’s international titles.

 

The FISU championships had reached such a high level that things could have hardly been otherwise. In line with the FISU regulations and given the specific nature of the contest, men’s and women’s championships were based on individual tournaments of nine rounds, in accordance with the Swiss system. Alongside the individual contest there was the inter-team rating determined by the adding up of the two best men’s and women’s results. At the end of the matches, three men and women were rewarded with International FIDE titles. The 1996 edition in Leon, Spain, also assigned the rank of International Master to two men and one woman. The high status of the World University Chess Championship was confirmed at the fifth edition in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, in 1998, in which four Grand Masters, sixteen International Masters and fifteen FIDE Masters took part in the men’s competition. Among women, there were eight Grand Masters, three International Masters and six FIDE Masters. It was a dazzling success. After this excellent success and the high participation level, two more editions of the World University Chess Championships were held: first in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, in 2002 and then in Lagos, Nigeria, in 2006, in which only eight nations participated . New success of the World University Chess Championship was in Novokuznetsk, Russian Federation, in 2008, as well as in Zürich, Switzerland, in 2010. In 2011, chess entered the FISU history with a contest between the best university players of the world at the Summer Universiade in Shenzhen, China.  

 Statistics WUC Chess

 

Year

Country

City

N° of

Countries

M

W

Athletes

Officials

Total

1

1990

URS

Odesa

13

39

19

58

15

73

2

1992

BEL

Antwerpen

11

37

15

52

13

65

3

1994

BUL

Sofia

15

43

23

66

14

80

4

1996

ESP

León

13

33

20

53

14

67

5

1998

NED

Rotterdam

17

57

27

84

22

106

6

2000

BUL

Varna

18

40

14

54

9

63

7

2002

MGL

Ulaanbaatar

8

17

11

28

9

37

8

2004

TUR

Istanbul

15

42

22

64

12

76

9

2006

NGR

Lagos

8

27

16

43

16

59

10

2008

RUS

Novokuznetzk

12

33

24

57

16

73

11

2010

SUI

Zürich

21

57

39

96

29

125

12

2012

POR

Guimaraes

17

40

22

62

18

80

13

2014

POL

Katowice

15

46

25

71

24

95

14

2016

UAE

Abu Dhabi

17

48 34 82 33 115

15

2018

BRA

Aracaju

13 26 24 50 11 61

 

 Statistics Chess as an optional sport at the Summer Universiade

 

 

Year

Country

City

N° of

Countries

M

W

Athletes

Officials

Total

26

2011

CHN

Shenzhen

 

 

 

 

 

 

27

2013

RUS

Kazan

 44

 86

 71

 157